It is proposed that the cognitive and behavioral consequences of dyadic interactions are influenced by the direction of a participant's social attention. Participants in interpersonal events may direct their attention outward toward the other person or inward toward themselves. When attention is directed outward, the other person is seen as more influential and is evaluated more intensely. In addition, his or her verbal contributions are better remembered. When attention is directed inward, the self is seen as more influential and is evaluated more intensely. In addition, the self's own verbal contributions are better remembered. An increase on one side of this "attention equation," however, invariably involves a corresponding decrease, or tradeoff, on the other side. Thus self-directed attention in a dvadic interaction can result in poor comprehension of and memory for the other person's contributions, as well as an exaggerated sense of personal responsibility for failures to respond appropriately. A series of experiments is proposed to investigate the cognitive mechanisms at work, the precipitating conditions found in everyday interpersonal settings (especially the effects of differential rank and minority status), and the possibilities for "retraining" social attention. A simple cognitive strategy is proposed as an aid to those who would like to direct their social attention more effectively.